Memoirs of a Lunatic

Done And Done

2008-01-09T17:41:00.001-05:00

I know I haven't posted in awhile, but I've just really lost interest in what this blog represents. I've seriously considered starting a new blog a couple of times and now I finally have. I've started a new blog called Pete on Software. It is pretty much purely technical, so I don't think I'll attract the same broad spectrum of readership as I did in my heyday, but I think I'll be more interested in keeping it up. I also won't have the same pressure to post daily like I did here at one time. All in all, a good thing for me.

Stop by if you'd like, you're more than welcome!

Pete
http://www.peteonsoftware.com/

Best Political Ad Ever

2007-11-19T15:43:00.001-05:00

Checking In

2007-10-22T09:35:00.000-04:00

What's up, peoples? I'm sure that any quasi-regular readers that I did have don't check that often anymore because I'm just not bringing the "quality" or the "quantity" that I was bringing.

Stuff has been pretty hectic here in my life. Work has been really busy since we lost one of our projects and had to let some people go. The company has set the finances though, so we have plenty of money for the foreseeable future. Now, we need to just get some more big projects! I'm fairly optimistic right now, considering.

For your enjoyment (and not to just be kind of a downer), here is a comic that I thought was kind of funny:

Party Plates

2007-08-29T21:07:00.000-04:00

I live in a suburb east of Columbus, Ohio, but I work in Delaware, Ohio. It is a smallish town northwest of Columbus. It takes me between 45 minutes to an hour to get there.

Well, I thought that I'd share an observation that I've had about Delaware. There are seemingly more "party plates" per capita in Delaware than just about anywhere that I've been. Once I get in or near Delaware, I see them *everywhere*. I pass them on the road. I pass them parked on the side of the road. I see people leaving bars to get in them.

I wonder if it is my imagination or that people just having nothing better to do up there than drink and drive.

HP7

2007-07-21T16:47:00.000-04:00

I've finished the final Harry Potter book. I was actually reading carefully and more slowly than usual, but was still knocking out over 100 pages an hour.

Best book of the series.

I'm not going to ruin anything, so I'll talk more about it later.

Soylent Green is People!

2007-07-08T18:55:00.000-04:00

I finally watched the classic movie Soylent Green yesterday morning. It was the first movie that I watched using the new movie streaming service from Netflix that was added for no extra charge to my account. I had already known the premise of the movie, but felt like I was missing something having never seen the movie, so I went ahead and knocked it out.

It was okay, especially since I already knew the ending. I do think, however, that Charleton Heston is not a great looking man. I just don't understand how he was ever a heartthrob.

Yesterday was my birthday. I turned the big 3-Oh (born on 7-7-77, lucky me!), and had a pretty good day. I got some presents, some cash, and an IOU from G-Man and Trin for the 7th Harry Potter book when it comes out in two weeks. I just hope they aren't bringing Harry's death to my doorstep (or the death of any of the other two main kid characters either)!

G also took me to see Transformers on Monday and Tuesday as an additional part of the gift. That's right. I said Monday AND Tuesday. Let me explain.

We went on Monday evening to the first showing of the movie. Good times. We were all set. We got good seats and got to see about 40 minutes of the movie. Just as it was starting to get good and action packed... BOOM! Movie shuts off, lights flip on.

While we are going, "what the deuce?", a guy finally comes in and tells us that there is a blown transformer (no lie... the irony!) and that power is out in the entire area. They kicked us out and gave us passes to come back. So, we had to set it up so that we came back the next night (Tuesday) to watch it again. At least it was good!

Finally, I want to leave you with this thought from Transformers, Megan Fox is hot! I was hip to her leading up to the movie because she has been in a lot of magazines recently and I definitely noticed! Normally, I tend to lean toward blondes (like a Rachel Taylor - also in Transformers, or the lovely Lo), but Ms Fox definitely caught my attention. It might be the blue eyes against the dark hair, but whatever it is, she is pretty fine.

Click Thumbnail for Full-Sized Image

I may still have some piggish qualities in me, I can't help it! ;-)

Days Later In Gotham City

2007-06-28T15:24:00.000-04:00

Wow, it has been over 3 whole weeks since I last posted. I feel so good!!! Not much has changed for me, so if I had been posting this whole time, they would have been hecka boring!

My job paid for me to go to Cedar Point with a few other co-workers to take some clients who really wanted to go. That rocked.

My fantasy baseball team is in first place. I think it is just cuz I work harder, I can't be THAT much smarter ;-)

I just got an email from Netflix today that they are automatically lowering the rate on my plan. In addition, I can watch 14 hours of movies and TV episodes instantly on my PC each month - for no additional charge. Bargain central, baby!

I'm working on a big project at work, integrating this one product into our company's product. I made a big breakthrough yesterday and everyone is pretty happy. Let's hope I keep at the continued success so I stay in the good graces!

Lastly, I also had a terrific adventure with my car. My serpentine belt broke while I was doing my killer commute. So, I'm stuck. I go to make a call, cell phone is out. I forgot to pay the bill. With Sprint, I could call only Sprint while my service was out and I figured Cingular/New AT&T would be the same. I would just call, pay the bill, and make my calls. No such luck.

So, I have to walk to the next exit (and cross the 4 lane freeway to get off). I hoof it about a mile before a nice man pulls over and drives me to a gas station. Additionally, he lets me use his cell phone to call someone from work to come get me. I had to leave a message and pray they were sending help.

After waiting 45 minutes, someone did come and I got to work. That evening, when I went to take care of my car, I found it had been towed. What the deuce!!! There was a car a mile south of mine that was there for the two days prior (and remained there for a few more going forward!). So, I ended up having to pay to get it out of impound. Sucked.

My friend had AAA and had it towed to his place, where one of my co-workers in their carpool would take a look at it Monday. That was the plan, anyway. Turned out my co-worker was there using the other guy's (also a co-worker) pool at his apartment complex, so he just volunteered to fix it there.

It took us a while, but we got it done for the cost of the belt (and dinner for the amateur mechanic and his girlfriend). Car runs like a champ now. Except for no A/C (but that hasn't been working for months).

I need a new car...

Aaaannnnddd Vacation

2007-06-04T13:01:00.000-04:00

Well, I took off from blogging for quite a little bit there and I think it was very good.

I had blogged every single day (sometimes multiples) for almost 3 years. Recently, it has just been very tedious and I didn't look forward to it at all. Almost all of my blogger friends have stopped updating very frequently and while Statcounter says I still get people coming by ("Hinder Sucks" is a big Google draw), no one comments anymore. However, I don't really blame them because the content is so thin.

I liken this to how I've been on various things that I get addicted to that require daily intervention. For instance, for awhile I was all about iwon.com. I would go there and get my 100 click points every day, certain that I would win a $10,000 daily prize. It was tough letting the days go, but I was finally able to stop.

I had the same issue with this. I had done daily posts for so long that I was almost certain that something bad would happen if I stopped. It didn't.

I feel free!

It is Decided

2007-05-23T23:51:00.000-04:00

Jordin is the American Idol, as I knew she would be. I'm pretty happy about it, though (if it couldn't be Melinda), because Blake couldn't do the album that Blake needs to do if he was locked up in an Idol Winner's Contract.

I was a little hacked that the finale went past 10pm and if we weren't watching it on DVR (just started 40 mins late to miss the commercials) and had finished right at 10pm as well, we would have missed the announcement entirely.

In my opinion, there wasn't enough Haley or Gina on the show. They let the hot-factor slide a little too much, in my opinion.

And finally... that Blake beatbox duet with Doug E Fresh was out of control. I was a little shocked that American Idol allowed that in, but I am definitely pleased.

The Idol Final

2007-05-22T23:05:00.000-04:00

I like Blake. I do. I like the beat boxing, I like his Morrissey-sounding voice. I would buy his CD. However, I don't think he should have been in the top 2 and he was overmatched by Jordin (who I think would have been overmatched by Melinda).

I'm glad we have DVR, though, or else tomorrow's finale would be unbearable!!!

24 Season Finale

2007-05-21T23:31:00.000-04:00

I guess because this was the first season of 24 that I've watched the normal way (week by week and without a clue what was going to happen), I was pretty excited the entire way through. The only other season that I've seen is season one and I watched that on DVD and already knew who the bad guy was and who died at the end, so this was a different experience.

Some of my friends who have seen all of the seasons thought that this one was a disappointment. I didn't feel that way at all, however I don't have too much to compare it to. I felt cheated that some things didn't get resolved (how is Wayne Palmer?, Is that Morris' baby?), and I didn't really like where they ended it. I kept worrying that Audrey's dad was going to shoot Jack while his back was turned.

I've heard from some entertainment sources on the Internet that next season was going to have a lot of changes. Some suggestions included less time at CTU (if any), multiple concurrent (but different) story lines, and presumably more action.

Anyone watch the whole season? Got an opinion on it? Comment and let me know.

Hula at the School-A

2007-05-20T19:17:00.000-04:00

We finally got our pictures back from the Father-Daughter Dance and I thought that I'd share. Aren't we cute?

Fun With Google, Again

2007-05-19T09:25:00.001-04:00

Here are some more of the search terms used in the last 10 days to find this blog.

at&t

hinder sucks

michigan blogspot cheerleader photos

mcdonalds playplace in troy michigan

movie dialog call me stalk you

busta rhymes when disaster strikes

third birthday quotes

nickelodeon game lab

samples by memoirs preteen

marvel lunatic

japanese golfer joke

gridiron gang

frypod

what happy meal toy is mcdonalds giving out this week in pickerington ohio

why hinder sucks

i fixed the internet i discovered a hole in our internet security

dilbert i fixed the internet

cinderella man

phat bums

troy the gator hunter

family guy, stewie-isms

For Those of You Too Lazy..

2007-05-18T20:03:00.000-04:00

If you are too lazy to bend down and power off your computer, you could always do it this way...

Peein in the Dark

2007-05-17T23:34:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday, the power was out at our building and remained so for a few hours. Our boss made it kind of cool, because he broke out the grill and went and bought some food. Unfortunately, we had no emergency lights in the potty so I had to take a flashlight and improvise.

This was the result.

Hinder Sucks

2007-05-16T21:29:00.000-04:00

Seriously, how the heck does this band get airplay. The "Lips of an Angel" song was so terrible. The music was bad and the lyrics were juvenile and dumb. Now, this freaking "Better Than Me" song... I swear when it comes on I want to blow my brains out.

Does anyone out there actually like Hinder? If so, I bet it is all women. I can't imagine a guy being willing to admit that they do...

Slugacide Bomber

2007-05-15T23:54:00.000-04:00

Colbert on AT&T

2007-05-14T19:06:00.000-04:00

This is comedy gold.

Mother's Day

2007-05-13T17:21:00.000-04:00

What an interesting day Mother's Day has turned into in my life. I am definitely thankful for Lo and the mothering that she puts in on our three children and a daily basis. She does a fantastic job and lately, she has been having to act more like a single parent than a normal person's sanity should allow. Hopefully, that will be rectifying itself soon, but as we sailed into this Mother's Day, she was putting in some serious overtime!

Other another front, however, this is the first Mother's Day that I've ever had without my mother and Lo's fourth that she has been without hers. I'm sure that they don't get any easier for her. Instead of having trouble deciding whose family to see and when on this day, neither of us have moms to go see.

Guitar Players!

2007-05-12T20:19:00.000-04:00

Seriously! What is it about guitar players that they can't freaking stop playing the stupid instrument for 2 minutes in a band setting? People are trying to communicate, the band is trying to practice, and the people leading the practice have lives.

How selfish do they have to be? It is just ridiculous.

Photoshop Makeover

2007-05-11T13:08:00.000-04:00

Powerless

2007-05-10T23:04:00.000-04:00

So, I finally get off at a decent time today and get home and the power has been out for about an 90 minutes! Dinner in our electric oven had almost finished and fortunately could finish cooking due to the heat still trapped in the oven, so we got to eat.

We hung out for awhile and eventually drove to get ice cream (it was stupid hot!), and got home to a still-dark house. So, I did what any sensible person would do and went to bed at 9:30-ish :-) The power finally came back on at around 10:30 (I think) and I woke up long enough to check on things, write this, and then I'm going back to bed!!!

Long Hours

2007-05-09T23:59:00.000-04:00

Man, I'm getting killed at work recently. Here are the hours I've worked since May 1st. These are only the hours I worked and lunch has been deducted. You can also add to this my pretty substantial drive time each day (1.5 - 2 hours).

1 - 11.5 hours
2 - 12.5 hours
3 - 11.5 hours
4 - 8.5 hours
6 - 8 hours (Sunday)
7 - 9 hours
8 - 15.5 hours
9 - 14 hours

So, you can see, I've been a little busy.

David Ortiz and Steroids

2007-05-08T23:59:00.000-04:00

Well, count David Ortiz as a Barry Bonds supporter. While Ortiz' teammate Schilling has thrown Barry Bonds under the bus for cheating on the game, his wife, and his taxes, Big Papi is on the record as believing that Bonds has not taken any 'roids. Even if he did, "You've still got to swing the bat, man". (A point I have long believed anyway).

However, the more shocking thing that Ortiz said was, "I used to buy a protein shake in my country. I don't do that anymore because they don't have the approval for that here, so I know that, so I'm off buying things at the GNC back in the Dominican (Republic). But it can happen anytime, it can happen. I don't know. I don't know if I drank something in my youth, not knowing it".

He then made light of it by saying that, "I should use steroids just to see what's going on. Nah. I have a good family. I want to see my kids learn and develop. I think I'm having an OK career. So, I take a lot of Advils, but I think I'm going to stop taking them. They say it (expletive) your liver".

I guess he was just being 100% truthful, but I wish that he had had a more definitive answer against steroids. I'm a big fan of the guy and I hope that we never see him get Raffy Palmeiro'ed.

Full Story Here

Simpsons vs. Family Guy

2007-05-07T21:54:00.000-04:00

I love Family Guy, but DAG.

I Will Boast

2007-05-06T15:31:00.001-04:00

At this morning's worship service, we performed the song I Will Boast, by Paul Baloche. (You can go to his My Space page and hear it, if you don't know it. It is one of the songs in his jukebox.)

It went really well. First service was even hopping quite a bit. However, second service - not to be outdone - was out of control. People were really into it. Worship always goes well when Joel is leading, and Alex was on the electric guitar bringing his (very practiced) guitar licks. Basically, I was just glad to be on stage for it :-) The weakest link still gets to get dragged around with the chain!

Third Birthday Party

2007-05-05T21:45:00.000-04:00

Today was my son's third birthday party. It was really good times and we had so much food that it was insane. G lent us his grill and then operated it for us. He cooked up hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill, then had potato salad, baked beans, chips, celery, cheese and crackers, cake and ice cream, cookies, and it was all great.

Here is a picture of my son opening one of his presents.

Right after he opened this, he stood up, dropped his pants and tried to put the clothes on. It was pretty funny.

That's my boy!

Long Week

2007-05-04T19:56:00.000-04:00

Looking back to this past Monday, I felt for sure that the events that occurred that day actually happened last Monday or the Monday before, for sure. This week has just dragged on.

That may have something to do with the fact that I've been working so much this week. I haven't run the tally yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm running over 60 by this point. My "official" work weeks are Monday to Sunday and I plan on putting quite a few hours in this weekend (even potentially going into the office Sunday evening), so I may hit 70.

Dis Is Da Life Of A Go Getta (Ey) Go Getta (Ey) Go Getta (Yea)....

I'm a Marvel... and I'm a DC

2007-05-03T18:54:00.000-04:00

Phil is Out

2007-05-02T23:53:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty happy with how the Idol results went tonight. In fact, if I had to pick two to go tonight, Chris and Phil were the two. Now, the only problem is who can go next week. To me, probably Jordin, but we'll see.

Because of work, I actually watched the Idol show, then the results this evening all together. I say that to excuse the fact why I didn't jump my fat butt on here last night as soon as Blake sang to say that his rendition of that song was INCREDIBLE!!!

Seriously, I would pay for whatever this guy is doing right now, let alone after they hook him up with some super-producers and collaborators. I don't know if America loves him enough for him to win, but he should definitely be okay for his career!

Kind Words

2007-05-01T23:04:00.000-04:00

We had some VIP Clients in to our office today. The one guy is in charge of the healthcare imitative for our largest client (one of our major software pieces is a healthcare financial platform) and this particular guy addressed all of our employees today.

He told us that the work that we have already done was considered impossible and was unheard of in the industry (as far as features and timeframe, etc) and that the client is really happy with us.

Our CEO has told us this kind of information before, but it is different to hear it from the horse's mouth, so-to-speak, and was kind of a morale-boost - to me anyway.

The Draft

2007-04-30T19:28:00.000-04:00

Well, the NFL Draft went down this weekend and there were a few surprises (Brady Quinn falling, Ted Ginn taken at 9 to Miami), but things went reasonably well for entities that I care about (The Ohio State University and The Pittsburgh Steelers).

The Steelers addressed some needs, taking solid players throughout the draft, though I had only heard of 1 or 2 of them. I'll trust the talking heads when they say that these are good players.

For the Buckeyes, they had 8 players drafted.

Ted Ginn Jr. - Round 1 to Miami. I'm a little worried about this one. I'm sure he will do well in their return game, but they have no QB to get him the ball at WR.

Anthony Gonzalez - Round 1 to Indy. Oh, snap! AG is going to blow up big time. Gonzo is going to fill the Brandon Stokely role on the Colts and everyone is going to know his name!

Quinn Pitcock - Round 3 to Indy. Another Colt connection. Quinn is a good player who should really only strengthen their defense.

Antonio Pittman - Round 4 to New Orleans. I don't get this one. New Orleans has Deuce McCallister and Reggie Bush. I look for someone to get moved or Pitt not to get much playing time unless someone is hurt.

Jay Richardson - Round 5 to Oaktown. Their defense sucks. He can only help!

Roy Hall - Round 5 to Indy. Sheesh, Indy. You must really love us. Roy is a very physical WR (he lined up at TE for us in the past and was a special teams assassin) and the Colts aren't going to be sorry about him.

Troy Smith - Round 5 to Baltimore. The Ravens got a steal here. Troy has been knocked for his height(6'0", same as Drew Brees) and the Buckeyes' performance in the National Title Game. It isn't deserved and his arm is strong and his feet are fast. A year or two of seasoning under McNair and Troy should be the man in Baltimore!

Doug Datish - Round 6 to Atlanta. Datish is a very good center with a lot of experience. Mike Vick (if he can stay away from the law for 5 minutes) should become a huge fan of Doug's.

What a great weekend. Go Stillers and Go Bucks!!!

Goooooooaaaallllll

2007-04-29T23:32:00.000-04:00

My younger daughter scored her first goal today. She has been playing really well and really attacks the ball and isn't afraid to get knocked around a bit.

What happened was that someone had kicked the ball downfield a bit and she and another girl from her team ran past people to get to it. The other girl kicked it some toward my daughter and my daughter banged it in the goal. It was pretty cool.

It is good to see your kids do well.

Bowling

2007-04-28T23:06:00.000-04:00

We had a good time tonight getting our bowling on in Delaware with our kids and some of our friends. That may be a long way to go for bowling (45 minute drive), but since we were already in Delaware for Lo's cousin's daughter's birthday party, it was only a short jaunt to get there.

The kids had a blast and were fun to watch whenever they got spares or strikes. They would jump up and down and all of the people in the alley would look at them.

Good times.

Getting Excited

2007-04-27T23:44:00.000-04:00

This is going to be a big year for Harry Potter fans with the 7th and final book coming out and the 5th movie coming out as well. Watch the trailer and get excited!

The Big Oh-Three

2007-04-26T21:57:00.000-04:00

My son turned three years old today. I can't believe that he is that old.

I really like the kid that he is turning out to be. He is so funny and I know that he does stuff just to try to be funny. He is so different from the girls in that he is very adventurous, climbs on everything, and makes insane messes on purpose just to do it. (I don't like the messes so much, but you have to admire his spirit in the face of punishment ;-) ).

Happy Birthday, Son!!!

Back to the Grind

2007-04-25T20:33:00.000-04:00

Oh, man. Yesterday, I was at work from 8am until 12:40am. Yeah, that is almost 16.75 hours, what? :) Add to that almost 2 hours of drive time and I was pretty boned.

At the end of 2006, I was working a lot of hours on projects and that is what is happening again. Of course, not everyone is working late. By 6pm, just about everyone else is gone. Not too shabby. However, I have a TON to do and no one who isn't really busy themselves to push some of the work to. (My manager puts in a stupid amount of hours, too.)

Today, I was going to work a partial day and I guess that worked out to be true. I only worked 8-4:50 (a scheduled day here is 9-5), so I still worked 50 minutes over a standard day, but that is a low day for me - especially lately.

Diet Coke Plus

2007-04-24T19:04:00.000-04:00

So I bought some Diet Coke Plus, thinking that the vitamins and minerals would do me some good. But seriously, it tasted flat and horrible. I couldn't believe Coke would put out such stink.

I found this article that describes EXACTLY how I feel about this. A sample from the article:

How wrong we were. From what we tried, DCP is destined to be the black sheep of the entire Coke family. Our first thought as we tried a chilled can was that the cola tasted flat, even fresh out of the can. A second sip confirmed our first impression. DCP was also sweeter than regular Diet Coke; the sweetness level was closer to full-calorie Coca Cola. We also found the flavor to be less complex than Diet Coke's flavor.

If you do decide to try it, make the smallest financial commitment possible to do so and do it at your own peril!!!

Sucker for the Countdown

2007-04-23T23:41:00.000-04:00

This morning, I awoke at around 2am or so to loud violent sounds from some scary movie on TV. I didn't want to hear that, but I still wanted the TV on for noise, so I just reached for the clicker and hit the channel down (or up, I don't remember) button. That landed me on the Weather Channel.

They were showing a countdown of the Greatest Moments in Weather or something like that. Sounds lame, huh? Not to me. I stayed up for like 30 minutes and then had to change the channel again so I could go back to sleep and not continue to watch it.

If you want to give me any information, it seems like I can't turn away from the rank-it, order-it, present-it-as-a-best-of-list kind of thing.

Does that make me strange?

Father Daughter Dance

2007-04-22T22:33:00.000-04:00

Last night, my daughters and I attended the Father Daughter Dance at their school. Last year's theme was a very formal one (suit and tie kind of thing), so I was pretty happy to hear that this year's was "Hula at the School-a". Check us out before we went.

We all had a good time and did lots of dancing. My oldest danced with me some, but spent some time with her friends. By the end of the night, she was kind of sad that she didn't dance with me more, because this is her last year at that school (next year is middle school) and thusly, this would be her last Father Daughter Dance. I wonder if she (and Lo and I) will be having a lot of those moments?

My younger daughter was very popular again this year. In fact, one of her friends called her before the dance to make sure that she was going. Once there, girls kept coming up and saying hi and my daughter kept obliging by making me slide her under my legs and pop her out and then doing a back flip. I probably coordinated over fifty back flips last night. I was getting pretty tired by the end of the night!

However, everyone had a great time and it really seemed to go by a lot faster this year, I'm not sure why. My younger daughter is now looking forward to next year when she and I will be attending solo. I just hope next year's theme is a good, casual theme as well!

Soccer Day

2007-04-21T18:34:00.000-04:00

Today was my girls' first day of soccer games ever. My oldest's game was first. They performed admirably, but lost 3-1. My younger daughter's game was quite different. She lost like 50-1.

For the 7 year old games, they split the team into two teams and only put 4 girls per team at a time on the field while the other members of the team played the other half of the opponent on another field. That made a lot more space on the (smaller) field for maneuvering, but in this case it was bad.

The ball was almost never on the opponent's side of the field and my daughter's team just got constantly scored on. I guess they can only get better, right?

The Office

2007-04-20T20:05:00.000-04:00

This video is very funny. I don't know how many people that might read this watch The Office, but it is a very funny show. Some people love them some Dwight and others love them some Jim. I personally love me some Jim, but this clip should satisfy both parties.

Bye Sanjaya

2007-04-19T07:11:00.000-04:00

Oh, my goodness, his reign of terror is over. I did like during his sign-off, how he sang, "Let's give 'em something to talk about, more than just hair". That was a little funny.

It isn't that I don't like the guy. I'm sure he is very nice. He just can't sing. And if he isn't the American Idol, then he needs to go sometime, and that sometime really was weeks ago, but I'll settle for now.

I wonder who votefortheworst.com is going to champion next...

The First Real Date

2007-04-18T22:21:00.000-04:00

As I stated here, it has been 10 years since I started dating my wife. In that post, I told that it had been 10 years since our first date - a double date.

Today is 10 years since our first "real" date.

After work, I went home and changed. I had bought new clothes just for this date, a pair of dark blue baggy jeans and a maroonish/purplish collared shirt with some sort of small paisley-ish design on it in some places. (Hey, it was 1997, and it was kind of stylish then! Seriously, I don't know how I got a 2nd date!)

When I got to her house, her brother G was sitting at the kitchen table playing an electronic quiz game and while I waited for Lo to come down, he gave me the "big brother" treatment a little bit. It was to be expected, so I just dealt with it :-)

When she was ready, we headed out. I took her to J. Alexanders to eat dinner. I was aiming for a certain level of "impress factor", since dinner for two usually runs $60-$70 there with tip :-)

On the way up, I remember acting like an idiot driving. I wasn't swerving or speeding. No, it was much worse for Lo. I moved my seat all the way up to the steering wheel and hunched over the wheel and drove like a grandma for much of the drive up. I'm pretty sure she was really embarrassed!

When we got there, we had to wait to be seated (of course), so she and I sat outside. It was a little bit cold, but we sat together and talked. We looked through the papers she had in her coat pockets. We talked about the people walking up to the restaurant. Good times.

Dinner was good. When we finished, we headed to the movies to go see Grosse Pointe Blank. We enjoyed that and held hands throughout the movie.

I took her home after that (curfew, baby - she was 17!) and we talked for a bit in her driveway and then she had to go in. In case you are wondering... I did get a good night kiss. In fact, it was quite a kiss. I liked it so much that I actually went home and told my friend Mike about it. What a nerd I am!

Country Week

2007-04-17T23:04:00.000-04:00

Seriously, I wanted to kill myself watching tonight's American Idol. Seriously? Seriously!!!

I hate country week because I hate country music. I don't hate every country song ever made (a do like a few), but by and large the genre is so bad. To make matters worse, so many of the songs tonight were just TERRIBLE!!!

Sanjaya has got to go. Please? Please can he go? Ha ha the joke was funny, but it is time for it to be over. Please?

Poker Winnings

2007-04-16T22:31:00.000-04:00

We went out Friday night. Before we hit the scene, we went to a co-worker's house and hung out. While we were there, a friend of mine and I who had been talking a lot of mess about our poker games decided to get some chips and play winner-take-all for $20.00.

It started out okay for me, then it went downhill in a hurry. At one point, he forced me to go all in, but I won the hand. Then, he ended up doing it again. I won that hand as well. We played back a forth a few more times before he went all in and I was giddy, because I had a great hand.

I won the hand, the game, and the twenty bones, my first ever "real" gambling winnings. To top it off, that more than covered our portion of the food and stuff for the evening, so I was crazy happy.

This is Funny

2007-04-15T21:24:00.000-04:00

Well, to me anyway!!!

Girl Next Door

2007-04-14T23:57:00.000-04:00

I watched The Girl Next Door tonight. It was only 109 minutes, but it seemed like it took a lot longer. To be fair, I can't tell if that was because we had to keep stopping it because kids were coming downstairs or if it just dragged on a bit much.

Not really off-topic, but a bit of a quandry... What happened to Elisha Cuthbert? She has kind of dropped off of the face of the Earth a bit. IMDB says that she has some movies coming out this year and next, so we'll see how that goes, I guess. She was great in this movie however, all she really had to do was look and be cute. Done and done.

I thought that Timothy Olyphant, who played Kelly, was a scene-stealer and most of the time he was on screen I was really enjoying his character - even when he was being not so nice to Matty (the main character).

I liked it well enough, but I don't think that I'd own it and I don't know if I'd ever watch it again. But, if it is 5am and it is on TBS or something, I probably will.

Imus

2007-04-13T13:53:00.000-04:00

I don't really care that the guy got fired. I'm not a fan of his show and he has a ton of money, so he won't be hurting. I personally didn't care that he said what he said. I am a white male, so I'm sure that is part of it, but the truth is that people in the media say things that offend me all the time as a Christian however, I just don't care what they think.

It isn't like Imus knows these girls and was passing some sort of judgment on their character or anything. I mean one girl said that the comments have somehow "scarred her forever" or some such thing. Serious overreaction.

I would think that people would be less sensitive today, not hyper-sensitive!

Ten Years

2007-04-12T22:54:00.000-04:00

Not of marriage, but of dating. Today is exactly 10 years since my wife and I started dating. April 12, 1997, my wife and I double dated with my friends Mike and Kristi and had dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. We talked and made paper airplanes (I'm pretty good ;-) )and had a good time.

Must have been okay, because I got a second date!

Cause of Death

2007-04-11T07:30:00.000-04:00

I called my dad yesterday just to check in and he told me that he received my mom's cause of death.

Apparently, my family was all shocked, but I am not. The cause of death is basically from an overdose of cocaine.

How wonderful.

5K?

2007-04-10T12:02:00.000-04:00

I've said before that I wanted to do one of these. Now, the fells at work are committed to run in the one on May 19th. I hope to just finish (I'm going to go in the runner group, not walker group), and moreso... I don't want to finish last.

I first wanted to do this like 2 years ago, so that obviously didn't go as planned (since I didn't do it!), but with this much peer pressure, I'll at least show up. Let's see if I can then not embarrass myself!!!

Sad Day in Pizza

2007-04-09T23:30:00.000-04:00

We went to order some Pizza Hut tonight for the Cheesy Bites goodness and they've ended it. We had to get stuffed crust instead. What is this world coming to when a man can't get cheesy bites pizza? I don't even really like Pizza Hut pizza, but the cheesy bites were too good to let go.

I really need to find good, fairly inexpensive pizza near my house.

Easter Scandal!

2007-04-08T23:57:00.000-04:00

Here is the website that BJ Novak references in the video. The exact part is at the very bottom.

Easter Eve

2007-04-07T23:45:00.000-04:00

Today wasn't a bad day. We got up, fiddled around, got some Chipotle (yum), sneakily got things for the kids' Easter baskets, and then headed over to Lo's grandmother's house to visit with some of her relatives in from out of town.

These particular relatives only come in a few times a year and the kids love to play with their cousins (who are quite a bit older than them). It is amazing how tall both cousins are getting, they are both taller than Lo now, and I don't doubt they will pass me up soon, too.

After eating there, we headed home and I got to catch up on some of my DVR'ed shows, while Lo caught up on her chatting and internet friends ;-)

Now, the day is over. Funny how it never goes quite how I think it will when I wake up in the morning.

Good Thing the Enterprise Did Not Run Windows

2007-04-06T22:21:00.000-04:00

Do You Know What Today Is?

2007-04-05T07:04:00.000-04:00

It's my anniversary! (All apologies to Tony! Toni! Toné!) Yesterday was exactly 52 weeks since I began my current job, but today is exactly one calendar year.

At the same time that it seems to have flown by, it also seems like I have been here forever. In realty, I could be happy to stay with this company forever and retire from here. I've said on numerous occasions that I work at the best place and for the best boss in the world and I really believe it.

Here is to another 40 birthdays all the way to retirement! (That's a lot of pressure!)

Gina Glocksen

2007-04-04T23:56:00.000-04:00

How can this be? The bottom three tonight should have been Phil, Sanjaya, and Haley. How can Gina have been voted off while Sanjaya stayed safe. I'm so sick of the vote for the worst BS.

I mean, this is these people's life. Gina and these others are looking to have a real career. I guess that she can hold on to the fact that she got herself out there and if she ever had a chance to get a record deal, this is it.

I'll be honest, I'm also bummed because I think that Gina is really hot. Oh, well. I'll get over it. It is just a tv show about some wannabe singers. I have to keep telling myself that...

So Bad

2007-04-03T22:28:00.000-04:00

Seriously, the shame. I hate Florida so much and I can't stand Joachim Noah, but now we have to endure the shame of losing championships to the same school twice in 100 days.

Both teams played a good game, but our problem was our 3 point shooting. If we had even shot 30% in the game (not unheard of!), we would have won. Instead, none of our shots fell and they could not miss. Their shooting was off the charts.

I don't know if it was nervousness or just bad luck, but we just played very poorly. Even though the game was only decided by 9 points, it was never in doubt for the entire 2nd half, mostly because of our terrible shooting and their "watch-me-hit-it-from-nine-feet-behind-the-line" shooting.

Next year?

The Game

2007-04-02T18:35:00.000-04:00

I've been excited for this Buckeye basketball season for quite some time now. I've written about it as early as here (July 2005). Now, we are at the championship game and it is about to get out of control.

We played the Gators in December and I was livid because we lost by 26 points. Then, we played them (in Football) and lost by 27 points. At the time, I wondered how cool it would be to play them in the finals of the tournament and beat them, exacting a measure of revenge.

Even then, it was such a long shot, but here we are now... going for the dream.

I'm very excited and I don't know if I'll even bother waking up tomorrow if we lose to the stinking Gators again.

Go Bucks (for my sake!).

April Fools - Google Style

2007-04-01T03:49:00.000-04:00

Google is at it again. Here are two (of the possibly many more - I don't know) Google pranks this year.

And

The first one is called Google Paper and they are offering to print out your emails and ship them to you so you can control them and ensure they are secure ;) The other one is called TiSP and stands for Toilet Internet Service Provider and is something that you are supposed to flush in your house and it will provide you with wireless internet access.

They are so crazy!

To the Finals!

2007-03-31T23:32:00.000-04:00

We did it!!! OSU beat Georgetown tonight 67-60 and I, for one, couldn't have been happier.

We hung out at a friend's house tonight to catch the game and in-between our shenanigans, the Buckeyes managed to knock out the Hoyas and set up another national championship showdown with the Florida Gators.

We just can't lose to them again, can we? COME ON, BUCKEYES!!!!!

Mona Lisa in MS Paint

2007-03-30T22:19:00.000-04:00

In the tradition of MS Paint greatness, I present to you the Mona Lisa.

American Idol

2007-03-29T21:45:00.000-04:00

First of all, let me say that I think that Ryan putting on that wig to look like Sanjaya's "fauxhawk" was hilarious. After that, the show was all downhill. I'm not saying that Chris Sligh didn't have a bad performance Tuesday (because he did), I'm just saying that Sanjaya *really* needs to go.

The longer this keeps up, the more likely that he will end up getting a record deal and we will have to deal with him as an annoying G-List "celebrity" who is always popping up all over the place.

God help us if that happens...

A Little Harsh

2007-03-28T23:12:00.000-04:00

Don't you agree?

OMFG

2007-03-27T23:20:00.000-04:00

Oy! My Facacta Goyim! ;-)

The drama that I spoke about on Sunday has reared its ugly head again. I spent this evening trying to sort through some crap.

Someone who is supposed to be my friend is telling me lies (or half-truths anyway, allowing me to believe non-truths). I'm pretty sure I've narrowed down which of the parties that it is, but his rationale is really suspect at this point.

Because I'm a finisher, I'll probably push this too far in search of a resolution, especially since he is an admitted sweep-it-under-the-rug kind of guy.

Really, there is no other choice. We'll kill each other, or be best friends at the end of this ;-)

Peyton Manning On SNL

2007-03-26T22:48:00.000-04:00

This is some of the funniest stuff I have seen in a long time...

What a Weekend

2007-03-25T23:39:00.000-04:00

Now that this sucker is (almost) over, let me say a few things about it. We certainly had some fun. There was some drama, too, that kind of put a damper on some of my fun, but it was still a good time.

We got to Jeff's house at around 6pm on Friday and started having fun. At 9pm, the bus picked us up and headed to the first place. We stayed there for awhile and then we bussed across the river to Kentucky to hit another spot. From there, we headed over to another place right across the street, where we closed it down with dancing.

Saturday, we woke up somewhat late and Jeff and I brought back breakfast for the people who stayed overnight. Then, we all went to our hotels and relaxed for a few. Soon, it was time for dinner and we decided to walk across the river to Kentucky again (2 miles) to get dinner.

We walked back, returned to our hotel and hung out in the bar/restaurant and played some pool. Pretty soon, it was time for the early risers (5k race in the morning) to hit the hay. My boss (the CEO and owner of the company) was rearing to go, so Lo and I took a cab with him over to Kentucky again and danced for about 2-3 hours.

Today, we woke up a little late again and hung out for a few before heading home after checking out. We ended up stopping at the Outlet Malls to do a little shopping and eat some lunch before coming back home and ending our weekend.

We had a ton of fun and my wife is so much fun to be out with. All of my coworkers love her (I have pictures to prove it ;-) ), and she just really likes to dance and is darn good (and sexy) at it, too.

All good things must come to an end, I guess. So did this weekend. Oh, well. We have something good to look forward to again some time.

The Hyatt

2007-03-24T17:28:00.000-04:00

Our hotel here is really nice. We are staying here, right near a lot of action. The hotel is situated right near Paul Brown Stadium, Great American Ballpark, US Bank Arena, The Taft Theatre, and lots of other places.

The weather has been really nice and we are probably going to do a lot of walking to check some stuff out. We are probably going to walk across the river to Kentucky to get dinner. I know how that sounds, but all of the nightlife in this area is on the Northern Kentucky side. We even partied at two places there last night.

Got to get moving...

Going Out of Town

2007-03-23T07:28:00.000-04:00

We are leaving today to go to Cincinnati to visit a friend of mine and participate in his birthday bash. Trin and G have agreed to watch our brats tonight and then tomorrow they are going to other relatives' houses.

We are planning to not come back until Sunday afternoon and I'm expecting it to be a lot of fun. Tonight, we are going to just stay at my friend's house, since we won't be in until probably deep into Saturday morning (partay!). Tomorrow, however, we have reservations at a hotel downtown and hopefully, I'll talk more about that then.

I took the day off work today, however there is a lot to be done before we go - so I'm off to do it!

Sprechen Sie Deutsch

2007-03-22T09:08:00.000-04:00

I had a GAP job last night. The customer has a PC with Windows 98 (1st Edition!) on it. They've had a disk for Windows 2000 Pro for a while, but were unwilling to use it (software compatibility issues). Well, after the 9 millionth time that Windows 98 went down, they decided to go ahead and run the upgrade.

The problem was that the disk that I had to use had had something spilled on it that had eaten away at the disk somewhat. It was unreadable. I decided to download a Windows 2000 install and then just use their serial number, no problem.

Well, fortunately I was installing it to dual boot, because I had downloaded a German version of the operating system. D'oh. Fortunately, I found from a Microsoft page that Windows 2000 in any language can be made to display not only that language for the interface and help, but also "English, Western European, Eastern European, Asian, and right-to-left".

Good thing I am really familiar with the Windows 2000 install, as I was able to navigate it (in German) with no issues. The problem arose, though, when the install kept failing at a particular point (the computer would spontaneously reboot) and I had to scrap that idea and just repair their Windows 98 install until we can get a good version of the Windows 2000 install disk.

It was a nice try anyhow!

Wrong One

2007-03-21T23:53:00.000-04:00

The wrong person got sent home from American Idol again. I know Sanjaya is on VoteForTheWorst.com, but he was in the bottom 3 last week, I thought their stranglehold had weakened. Instead Stephanie Edwards was given the boot, though she was a very strong singer overall.

I will admit that her performance yesterday lacked its normal shine, but even so, Sanjaya was much worse. I thought Tha 'Jaya and Haley would have been bottom two. Up is down and down is up. This is not good.

At least there is still someone worthy of winning left, for now anyway!

American Idol

2007-03-20T23:02:00.000-04:00

Well, this week was pretty good. Sanjaya was utter crap and he needs to just GO. I don't care about Momjaya or that whiny crying girl. Get him out of the competition, now!!! Blake was the man, as usual, and while everyone was good - certain people separated themselves, I think. Ryan Seacrest beat boxing and dancing was out of control.

That's it. Two hours distilled into a few sentences. It is what I do :-)

Never Thought I Would Think It

2007-03-19T21:12:00.000-04:00

I'm considering not being such a regular blogger on here. Today's gem is my 1,255th post. That is certainly a lot, and I haven't missed a day in about 2.5 years. However, while I do have some things to blog about, I've found that I'm a bit too busy to actually do it.

I don't know that I'll stop today, but the idea is certainly weighing heavily in my mind. I'm not sure why I feel so compelled to write everyday, would it be so bad to miss a day?

I'm such a freak :-)

The Marine

2007-03-18T22:55:00.000-04:00

While Lo was out Saturday with some girlfriends, I hung out with another husband left to care for the kidfolk. We ended up taking the kids out for Sammie's Pizza Buffet and renting a movie. The men picked up The Marine while the girls got an Olsen Twins video.

The Marine was terribly unbelievable, full of horrible dialog, and shallow characters. In short, it is many things that an action movie should be! Joking aside, the movie was a decent diversion, but unless you can really suspend disbelief for awhile and you are someone who likes cheesy action movies, I wouldn't recommend it.

2 stars out of 5

The iRack

2007-03-17T23:36:00.000-04:00

There seems to be a thinly veiled message here. I just can't figure out what it is!!!

Tourney Bracket

2007-03-16T23:38:00.000-04:00

I paid my $10.00, put in my two brackets and now the first round is complete. I have not done as well as I would have liked, that's for sure. I still took some chances on my "real" bracket and those haven't come through. My "stuff done hit the fan" bracket is in last place, but that one had upsets all over the place. No such luck.

The people that are leading our company pool have all pretty much just picked the favorites. That had been my strategy in previous years, but I tried to be different this year and now I'm exactly in the middle of the pack.

I think the universe can barely contain what I *don't* know about basketball!

Work Stuff

2007-03-15T23:58:00.000-04:00

Man, I am hecka busy with crap for a current project at work. I'm the development lead on it (this is the project that I went to New York for) and even though the workload is getting heavy, we are still on track to finish on time. This is going to be huge if we can just meet all the deadlines without having to alter the final one. This will be the first major project for our company in recent memory for that not to happen (though often, it is not our fault).

I'm getting busy again with interviews, as well. We need like 15 more people. My boss said today that if we knew anyone who could *operate* a computer, to get them set up for an interview. That means we are pretty desperate! I'm not for that level of desperation, but we do need people. Where are all the C# and SQL Server guys in the Columbus area? I work for the best company in the world, people! Come sign up!!!

Idol Vote

2007-03-14T22:54:00.000-04:00

I'm a little sad that Brandon got voted off tonight. I realize that he forgot his words, but come on, Sanjaya was way worse. Hopefully, Mr. Malakar being the the bottom two means that he will be voted off next week or the week after.

As for yesterday's show, I agree that Lakisha and Melinda are in a different league than most of the singers. However, even though Jordin is very likable, I disagree that she makes it a three-way race.

I also disagreed with their assessment of Blake's performance. I really liked what he did. I thought he showed a lot of talent and maturity to rearrange the song to that level of complexity and even outside of that, I liked the arrangement. He will live to fight another day, so I guess I can't complain.

Tourney Time

2007-03-13T22:56:00.000-04:00

Well, that reported most unproductive time in American business is upon us. I don't really care about basketball, but I paid my $10.00 to put in two brackets at work. I did one that has my "real" (as real as a basketball idiot can do) predictions and one that represents my "oh no, the stuff done hit the fan" predictions, full of crazy scenarios.

I don't expect to win, but IMHO it is worth the $10 just to be in on the smack talking and camaraderie around the office.

A Scary Moment

2007-03-12T08:05:00.000-04:00

I had a pretty good scare this morning. At 5:50am, my phone rang. I jumped up to answer it because a call at that hour can only be bad. I hear an automated voice telling me that this is a response to the alarm going off at my house. I don't hear the alarm (and that worries me), so I hit the 0# to clarify it as an emergency. After several seconds of hold time (emergency, my BUTT), I get an operator.

This dimwit can't seem to get it through his head why I might be speaking somewhat softly. I don't know... MAYBE I'M WORRIED AN INTRUDER IS IN THE HOUSE AND I DON'T WANT HIM TO KNOW I'M TRYING TO ALERT THE POLICE!!!!!!!!!!!

I finally repeat myself enough times (mind you - he knows what number and what account he is speaking to already) to have him tell me that the alarm actually went off at our old 2 bedroom townhouse. He also saw our current 3 bedroom townhouse on the list and that there were no alarms there (here). In addition, the new person who lived at my old place had cleared the alarm already.

I'm so angry with the office (who handles these accounts) for dropping the ball on this one by not transferring the accounts correctly. Thanks for scaring me to death worrying that my family is going to be the victim of a home invasion or something!

Cinderella Man

2007-03-11T23:39:00.000-04:00

I finally got around to seeing Cinderella Man today. I originally thought that it was a horrible name for the movie, but heard so many good things about the movie that I thought that I would give it a go, since I typically like boxing movies. I especially liked that they even made fun of the name "Cinderella Man" during the movie!

This movie was so inspirational and I really enjoyed it. Aside from the boxing connection, this movie is similar to the original Rocky. If you remember, in Rocky, a bum fighter ends up with an improbable title shot and rise to fame. The difference, of course, is that Cinderella Man is totally true.

If you can watch 2.5 hour movies and like inspirational films, I'd definitely recommend checking it out.

Home Alone

2007-03-10T19:36:00.000-05:00

Well, not quite. I've got 3 little ones here and a 4th (one of the girls' friends) just left. We just had some pizza and now I'm sitting here making copies of CDs and DVDs for church members who have requested them. Because of all of the things that have gone on, I haven't done it for a few weeks and the requests have really backed up.

I am supposed to start teaching bass guitar again tomorrow. Really don't want to. Only one person has signed up (was in it last time... only one that showed up every week then), but I'm just not good enough to teach the class.

I guess we'll see what happens.

World's Most Important 6 Second Drum Loop

2007-03-09T22:21:00.000-05:00

If you don't watch the entire 18:08, that's okay, but if you like music at all, you should watch the first 5 minutes or so. There really isn't anything to "watch", so you can just put it on and surf somewhere else in a different tab.

The interesting thing I wanted to hear was what the loop was. I actually guessed it as the narrator was describing it before he played it, especially with the mention that gangsta rap had taken it for several songs. What was really interesting was that it came from a band 40 years ago. Watch and learn a little bit about music history and how it evolves.

AI Final 12

2007-03-08T06:39:00.000-05:00

Today is the day that four more Idol hopefuls will go home. In the male category, I only care if Blake, Brandon, and Chris Sligh make it through. In the female category, I would like to see most of them in the finals. However, I think that Antonella (pictures be darned) and Haley can probably go home and I won't be too upset.

I really like to watch Blake perform and 2 of 3 of the ladies can really sing. I want Gina Glocksen to stick around because I have a little crush on her.

I don't know who I want to actually be the big winner this year, but I do know that it had better not be Sanjaya!

Dress Code

2007-03-07T06:15:00.000-05:00

My boss, ever the one to want to change things up, has changed our dress code policy at work. Tuesday - Friday, we are allowed to wear jeans, shorts, warmups, or whatever - as long as they are clean and not full of holes. We can wear t-shirts, just as long as they are fairly plain.

Monday, however, is a completely different story. Unlike any other time in my company's history, Monday's dress is business professional (minus a tie). We are expected to wear dress slacks (not khakis), a button down dress shirt, dress socks (some guys are still working on this!), and nice looking, relatively shiny shoes.

I've already knocked the Monday dress-up out of the way and now I get to wear jeans for the rest of the week. I'm very excited about that.

Joey Porter

2007-03-06T23:47:00.000-05:00

Oh, what a sad day this is. Joey Porter, one of my favorite Pittsburgh Steelers, is now a Miami Dolphin. The Steelers cut Porter in a salary cap move and the Miami Dolphins signed him to a five-year, $32 million deal with something like $20 million guaranteed. It definitely worked out better for him, but I know that this is a sad day for all true Steeler fans.

UFC

2007-03-05T14:34:00.000-05:00

I watched my first UFC Pay-Per-View on Saturday night and it was awesome. In actuality, it was the first pay-per-view that I have ever seen for anything!

We went over to a co-worker's house and ended up staying up way too late and just sleeping there. But, as for the event, the title fight went down just like I had hoped that it would. Randy Couture whooped upon his opponent, Tim Sylvia, and won a nice victory for old guys.

My favorite part was when he knocked Sylvia down like 8 seconds into the fight. It was all Couture after that. Yay, for ultimate fighting!

Gridiron Gang

2007-03-04T23:18:00.000-05:00

Netflix brought me Gridiron Gang and last night I finally got around to watching it. I thought that it was pretty good, and since it followed one of my favorite movie formulas (people being changed through sports), there was never any doubt.

There were definitely some sad parts and it definitely reminded you at the end that this was based on a true story. In a pure Hollywood movie, everyone would be transformed by the team, but in real life we are told before the closing credits that 5 people on that team went back to gang life and back to jail, the one comic relief kid died in a drive-by, and several others had happier endings.

It is sad to think that that is how so many people live their lives, but I am glad that there are people like the character that The Rock was portraying that are taking bold steps to try to help them.

BJ Harris

2007-03-03T16:02:00.000-05:00

Last night, the kids had their Upward Awards Night. Last year, the entertainment was a little lackluster, but this year it was out of control good.

BJ Harris, a magician, came and did his thing. He was so incredibly good, that it was unbelievable.

He wasn't some two bit illusionist doing a couple of lame card tricks, BJ Harris did seriously quality tricks that not only completely wowed the kids (even the ones that got to see it twice like my children) but the adults, as well.

I did have a general idea how some of the tricks were performed, but I couldn't catch any sign of him actually doing them. For his finale, he locked his assistant (his wife) in handcuffs, tied her in a bag and locked her in a trunk with 6 padlocks on it right in the middle of the stage. Two men (both of whom I know) stood on stage on either side of the box during the illusion. Then, BJ stood on top of the box, pulled the curtain up and when it had reached its apex, he immediately dropped it. When the curtain fell, his wife was free and on top of the box and he was locked inside.

I saw the Masked Magician do the trick on one of his specials on TV where he explained how it was done, but that was another trick that I saw no evidence of the "trick" part of the illusion actually being done.

During his performance, BJ also took some time to explain how he came to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and shared the gospel during another good illusion. I highly recommend that if you ever have the opportunity to see BJ Harris perform live, you take it!

The Funeral

2007-03-02T23:17:00.000-05:00

The funeral was today and it was very nice and very well done. We ran the tribute video on the big screen as people paid their final respects. Our worship leader also played on the keyboard at this time. Then the casket was closed to start the service.

Our pastor led my mother to the Lord about four years ago or so. Because of that, I asked him to give a fairly evangelical message explaining why we believed that she was in Heaven. He did an excellent job and if by making that request I grooved him a fastball, then he knocked it out of the park.

Afterward, the ladies of the church prepared an excellent array of food (I still have some in my fridge) and decorated an area for us beautifully. I received many compliments on the entire way that our church treated the service and our family.

I am very thankful for the work that they all did.

Family Drama

2007-03-01T20:52:00.000-05:00

Hate to be so macabre and stay on the topic of the goings-on surrounding my mother's death, but this is what is going on right now. We had the viewing today and it couldn't just be a nice time of remembrance or any of that. Instead, my brother had to beget all sorts of drama by starting to drink during the first viewing, and then not showing up until the second viewing was over - even though he had many friends show up to support him.

So, then the topic became: Where is your brother? I didn't want to have to worry about where he was or what he was doing, there was enough stuff going on. So, add to the fact that people there are grieving the worry that one of her two sons might end up dead on the side of the road or kill himself even.

Like I said, he showed back up at the end and his friends took him home and hopefully will make sure he gets to the church on time for the funeral tomorrow.

Mmm Mmm Good

2007-02-28T22:11:00.000-05:00

Last night Alex and his wife Megan brought over dinner for our family. They brought slow-cooked pot roast (one of my favorites), corn (one of my favorites), delicious macaroni and cheese, rolls, and a huge stack of cookies.

It was all so good. I ate so fast and so much that you would probably swear that I had never eaten before. I just couldn't get it down fast enough! My kids remarked about how good it all was and one of my daughters' friends who ate with us wolfed it down as well. My wife had said that the friend wouldn't eat any of the roast because she didn't like meat, but she sure pounded some down. A testimony to the deliciousness, I'd say!

So, a very special thank you to Alex and Megan for the grub. It was yumtastic!

Outpouring of Support

2007-02-27T11:43:00.000-05:00

Since I've received the news of my mom's passing, I've received a ton of support and condolences. First, from our friends Alicia and Matt who were with us when I got the news, through people at church, and on to all of my co-workers.

I certainly appreciate it very much and it is nice to know that one has such good friends during times like these.

A Sad Day

2007-02-26T07:34:00.000-05:00

On Saturday night, we learned that my mother passed away. My brother arrived to where she was to find EMTs working furiously on her, but she was dead when they got there. My brother had talked to her on the phone 20 minutes before getting there and she was alive and fine. So, somewhere in those 20 minutes, she had a seizure, 911 was called, and the squad had arrived. They did all they could do and it was not enough.

There are a lot of things still to do and without a will several people have very strong ideas of what needs to happen. There is also a complicated family situation that I won't go into here that leaves it a bit in question as to who gets to call the shots.

I recommend everyone get life insurance and a will. It isn't for you, it is for the family you leave behind!!!

Up Late With Stewie and Brian

2007-02-25T23:45:00.000-05:00

Up Late

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Very Busy, Have a Video pt 2

2007-02-24T13:13:00.000-05:00

Very Busy, Have a Video

2007-02-23T23:10:00.000-05:00

I Do Not Get It

2007-02-22T17:27:00.000-05:00

Lovie Smith, the coach of the Bears, is the lowest paid head coach in the NFL. Well, someone has to be right? However, it just does not make sense in this case. The Bears aren't hurting for money and Lovie is a darn fine coach.

In 2005, Lovie Smith was the Coach of the Year. In 2006, he led the Bears to their first Super Bowl appearance in 20 years. His reward? He is still the lowest paid coach in the NFL. It just doesn't seem right.

Ah, Steak

2007-02-21T23:28:00.000-05:00

So, we have clients in town. Clients in town means clients get to go out to eat to a nice dinner. Nice dinner means some people get to go along. I got to be people tonight! My company took the 4 partners, a director, our head project manager, and 4 out of 6 Leads out to dinner at the same place that we had our Christmas party dinner.

I got the coffee cured fillet (no coffee flavor) that Lo got that evening and ended up very full with food. The conversation was a bit awkward at first, but we got the ball rolling.

I guess we'll find out tomorrow if we ended up being inappropriate!